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I'm a writer, photographer, and displaced Okie
who loves red dirt, green skies, all things
Disney, Sooner football, and Gary England.
I talk about SoldierMan, Baby G, Army life,
crazy puppies, and whatever God is working
out in me at the moment.
Say "hey" while you're here!

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Quotes for Life

"Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should....My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether be life or by death."

~ The Apostle Paul: Eph 6:18-20; Phil 1:20

"Lord, I intend it to thy glory, and let no profane misinterpreter abuse it to thy diminution."~John Donne

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."~ John Adams

"You have enemies? Good. It means you've stood up for something."~ Winston Churchill

"I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence."~ Ben Jonson

"The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."

~ George Washington

"Country music is about new love and it’s about old love. It’s about gettin’ drunk and gettin’ sober. It’s about leavin’ and it’s about comin’ home. It’s real music sung by real people for real people, the people that make up the backbone of this country. You can call us rednecks if you want. We’re not offended, ’cause we know what we’re all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary."

~ Jeff Foxworthy

"The most dangerous predator of liberals is the real world. They hide from it in college campuses."~ www.imao.us

"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."~ President Theodore Roosevelt

"Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!"~ Edna Ferber

"A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in an argument."~ Robert Frost

"I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it. You know who else was kind of "divisive" in terms of challenging the status quo and the powers-that-be of his day? Jesus Christ."~Ann Coulter

"Feminism has nothing at all to do with being 'feminine.' Feminine means accentuating the womanly attributes that make women deliciously different from men. The feminine woman enjoys her right to be a woman. She has a positive outlook on life. She knows she is a person with her own identity and that she can seek fulfillment in the career of her choice, including that of traditional wife and mother."~ Phyllis Schlafly

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."~ G. K. Chesterson

"It isn't going to bed with a man that proves you're in love with him. It's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful, everyday world with him that counts."~ Yours, Mine and Ours

"I owe nothing to women's lib."

~ Margaret Thatcher

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

~ Henry VI

"We're all born pessimists. It takes effort to be optimistic."

~ Rush Limbaugh

"True religion and true philosophy must ultimately arrive at the same conclusion."

~S.S. Smith

"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit."

~ Jack Dake

"If a woman like Eva Peron with no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with the ideals that I have."

~ Margaret Thatcher

"What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth book since I last saw you. Aren't either of these things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no - my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book; finally, something to celebrate! Maybe this seems funny or trivial, but it's really not."~ JK Rowling

"Dear LordLest I continueMy complacent wayHelp me to rememberSomehow out thereA man died for me today.As long as there be warI then mustAsk and answerAm I worth dying for?"

~Anon

"[Judgment] comes from four sources: God, nature, diligence and conversation. Serve the first, and the rest will serve you."~ Ben Jonson

"I think political correctness is a wonderful fad. Probably not as spiritually uplifting as the hula-hoop, but undoubtedly better for the health."~ Waiting for God

"Our God and soldier we alike adore. At the brink of danger, not before. After deliverance, both alike requited. Our God's forgotten and our soldiers slighted."~ Oliver North

"The way to tell the professional writers from the amateur writers is that the amateurs only write when they feel like it."~ Jerry Van Cook

"Remember that only in cheesy romance novels is the heroine guaranteed to find true love without the risk of vulnerability or pain."~ Dear Prudence column

"We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue."~ from "The Birth of a Nation"

"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree besides the river of truth, and tell the whole world - No, you move."~Captain America

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."~ John Stuart Mill

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."~ Alexis de Tocqueville

"I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny - a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls."~ J.K. Rowling

Wisdom from the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan:------------------------------Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.

Live each day to the fullest. Live each day with enthusiasm, optimism and hope. If you do, I am convinced that your contribution to this wonderful experiment we call America will be profound.

The dustbin of history is littered with remains of those countries that relied on diplomacy to secure their freedom. We must never forget...in the final analysis...that it is our military, industrial and economic strength that offers the best guarantee of peace for America in times of danger.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.

February 28, 2014

Bullet-Pointed Baby Thoughts

I had my latest COB appointment this week. Lasted a grand total of 5 minutes, of course, followed by 30 minutes in the pharmacy for more prenatals. But Baby G is doing well – measuring right on track, which is good, because there was concern she would be small due to my heart issues. And she may be in the end, but right now, she’s just the “right” size. Which makes me feel a lot better about the cardiologist’s comment last week. As long as she’s big enough, I’m big enough.

Speaking of big, here’s a nice updated belly pic for you:Something happened between Saturday night and Sunday night. I turned off the TV, saw my reflection in the screen, and about yelped. WHERE did that belly come from! I swear it wasn’t there the day before! This is the first week I’ve officially felt “large and in charge.” At least, compared to my old self. Which seems appropriate considering where we are in this process.

Baby G has found my bladder. That’s no fun. Especially when you’re driving and suddenly doubling over saying, “Please stop, baby girl. Please stop. Please stop.” Thankfully she doesn’t linger there and generally only does her Kenpo in regions where it’s still neat and fun. And it is still neat and fun. I’m loving feeling her wake up and move around in there.

Which reminds me of a conversation we had the other day. I was talking to SoldierMan about how she’s more active now. And he asked if I could feel her moving all the time. I said, no, it’s usually around 7:00 in the morning, around 9:00 at night, and a couple of times in between, for various periods of time. (Mornings last the longest, sometimes up to 30 minutes!) “The rest of the day, she’s just chilling.”And I was thinking about how peaceful that sounded, to be warm and weightless and floating, no cares or concerns….and suddenly SoldierMan says, “Gosh, that sounds boring!”Hahaha, just goes to show our different personalities!

Something I’ve been tossing around in my head is from an old news article that I can’t find anymore, and I don’t really want to google too much for it. It’s about “Peter File”s.

(that’s a very funny clip about a very serious subject, and I’m posting it for levity and clarity)This article was arguing for the reclassification of Peter Files to having various degrees, to include a kind of classification of a “non-harmful Peter File”. And yes, this was an article in a legitimate periodical like Washington Times. Anyway, they were saying that, essentially, not all Peter Files are created equal and so they shouldn’t all be lumped in together as the same. The justification for this was that there are allegedly lots of Peter Files who recognize that actually, um, interacting with minors is wrong. So instead, they troll the internet and just look at pictures, not p*rnography, but family pictures that people post, some Peter Files seeking pictures involving children as young as 6 months old. These Peter Files insist they have no intention of ever seeking out these children or any children in “real life,” they just need to look at pictures on the internet.And so we come to the question as old as interneting itself: how much of your family do you share online? I fully intend to post baby pictures of Baby G on facebook because I can control who sees them there (at least to a degree). But what about the blog? I haven’t even put her name in the body of a blog post. But what about pictures?I mean, come on, I’m going to take a ton of pictures of her. And I’ll want to share them everywhere. And it’s not even image thieves we need to worry about so much, apparently, just browsers. So watermarks and right-click-blocks don’t do anything.Let’s be honest, I don’t think there’s a way on God’s green earth I won’t be sharing any pictures of this kid. But this definitely put a new spin on things that I honestly had never considered. 6 months old?So, mommy bloggers, what do you think? How do you think through this? And please believe, I’m not trying to be the latest fear-monger. Mommies have plenty to worry about. I am fully aware the the only way to completely avoid freaks on the internet is to get completely off the internet, and that ain’t gonna happen. I’m just interested to hear your thoughts about this.

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comments:

I love bellies! I can't wait for mine to pop! I'm still in that awkward "is she fat or pregnant" stage..Ugh. The pictures is something I toss back and forth too. For a while, I thought watermarking was the solution. Now I realise that it probably makes it easier to come back and find my pictures. I had some creepy search terms lead people to my blog, so I went back and edited the posts that the creepers were being led to. It was mainly stuff that mentioned my kids and also happened to have the word "ass" in the post. Beyond that, I really don't know. After the ass issue, I stopped posting pictures where they were half naked, or in the bath or anything. But I can't just stop.

Eh, I haven't posted my kid's real names on my blog or twitter. I use IG but it's private. I post pics on the blog sometimes but I try not to. And when I do, I try not to post pics of them half dressed or "embarrassing" (crying, tantrums, etc). It's a hard balance.

It should go without saying that everything I write here is my opinion and doesn't reflect any official attitude or position of my husband, the US Army or the US government. But I'd be willing to bet I'm in agreement with the majority of Americans, at least most of the time.